Saturday, May 9, 2009

Borage

Some day in the not-so-distant future, I may need to pull plants out of my garden! Not what I would call thinning, I may have inadvertently double planted a couple of my square foot sections - possibly planting spinach or kale in squares where I had just planted radishes two days before. Oops!

There is great community at the Cordata Community Gardens and I enjoy the friendly sharing of gardening tips, tricks and general conversations with others at our gardens. One gardener couple had an excess of plants they had started themselves. Their starts looked so healthy and well cared for so I was delighted when they offered their extras.

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Volunteering to plant my neighbor's garden and a little room still available in his space, I selected some hardy broccoli plants, one more tomato plant and several borage plants. I sure hope he likes broccoli, and I wonder if I'll be able to sell him on that borage!

Unfamiliar with borage myself, fellow gardeners shared their knowledge about the plant. Turns out it's really an herb rather than a vegetable and its fresh leaves can be eaten like any other green - added fresh to salads, stir fried, steamed, boiled or sautéed. Some report that tomatoes benefit from having borage planted near them so it will be a good companion plant for my neighbor's tomatoes.

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I found recipes for wonderful sounding dishes - soups, jellies, drinks, as a stuffing for homemade ravoli, infusions, Italian dishes and more on the Internet. Its blue, star-shaped flowers are even edible and can be frozen in ice cube trays to add to lemonade or other drinks. Doesn't that sound absolutely refreshing!

Considered an herb for the melancholy with significant medicinal value for centuries, I especially enjoyed pondering this report that I found about the benefits of borage:

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Pliny reports that borage brings joy and happiness to people who cultivate it or are near it. An old text dating from 15 c.AD reports the following, "This herb is beneficial to all people, healthy or ailing alike. When consumed regularly, it has a beneficial effect on character.

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Two famous botanists of 16th c., John Gerard and John Evelyn, are of the same opinion, "The virtues of borage are quite known; it invigorates the hypochondriacs and refreshes the mind of those studying hard". In the Middle Ages Albert the Great attributed to borage revitalizing qualities.

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With such revitalizing qualities, borage does promise to be an interesting plant to grow. Won't this be fun!

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More pictures from today's planting.

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With my space finished, next is planting day for my neighbor's garden!